MonTemplar's Journal: Look out, Segway! Here comes the Sinclair C6!

'Move over Segway, I'm planning the C6'
By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Online

It was rumoured to be powered by a washing machine motor, was lusted after by pre-adolescent schoolboys and risked vanishing under a heavy goods vehicle without the driver noticing.

When it was unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1985, the Sinclair C5 was the last word in futuristic transport. Ten months, and £6m of investment, later it was consigned to the commercial scrapheap.

Now its inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair, is working on a "C6" - a top-secret follow-up to the ill-fated C5, to be unveiled next year.

[...]

He stayed tight-lipped about his new project, describing it only as a "new product designed at getting people around town". It is being developed in tandem with a British-based engineering company which specialises in compact electric motors and drive systems.

But if all goes to plan for Sir Clive, the Segway will be squaring up to some British competition next year.

He is convinced there is a gap in the market for his new invention, declaring the Segway unsuitable for British streets. The device weighs about 40 kilos and, unlike the C5, was designed to be used on pavements.

"In London there are lots of people milling around - a heavy vehicle like that, it's a lot of weight and doing 15mph, if you hit someone it would just knock them for six.

[...]

He has worked long and hard at re-inventing personal transport, launching the Zike - an mini electric bike - in the early 1990s, and the Zeta - an electric engine that fits onto an ordinary bike.

Does he think the humble but enduring push bike can ever be topped? "Just wait," he cautions, "until next year."

Cool

[dodell]

The C5 looks pretty neat in the picture in that article, but I can't help thinking: these are two completely different machines; the only way I see competition between them is that if you buy one, you probably won't have enough cash to buy the other :). It'll be cool when more information about both is available -- perhaps someone will want to "benchmark" the results ;).

Re:Cool

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

From the article, it sounds like the C6 will also be completely different than the C5. Now its inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair, is working on a "C6" - a top-secret follow-up to the ill-fated C5, to be unveiled next year.. If it's just another electric trike, I don't know how it could be all "top secret". I imagine it's quite different than both the C5 and the Segway.

Re:Cool

[Tomble]

I do too.

He stayed tight-lipped about his new product, describing it only as a "new product designed at getting people around town".

I think he's going into the shoe business.

Re:Cool

[gmhowell]

It probably will be way different. Sinclair has designed five semi-marketable technologies. None was a direct followup to the prior one. But, he's an engineer, so his inventions get names like C4, C5, C6, etc.

The C5 was a pretty nifty machine. I wouldn't mind having one in the garage. Wouldn't use it often, but it is way nifty in an 80's sorta way.

linkage [dmoz.org]

segways

[intermodal]

segways and their ilk are a nice idea but will never happen without a driving force behind them (no pun intended.) I'll give two examples.

For one, trains. Why are train tracks that width? Because that's how wide Roman Chariot wheels were. As time went on, chariotmakers and wagon makers used the same jigs and same wheelbase, and over time, it became the accepted norm for size. When railroad came about, they made it the same width so they could use the same jigs. Thus, a decision for chariots more than a thousand years ago dictates the width of our railroads.

Another more modern example is the telephone. Everyone has telephone wires to their house. Internet rolls around. Broadband does ok, but doesn't reach everyone. Why? Because telephone wires are already in place. They're not up to the standards of broadband, but because they can get online with them, no changes are made much to our chagrin.

Ergo, barring a war which destroys a continent enough to where all infrastructure such as roads must be rebuilt, cars will remain the main transportation. Unless you make it feasable for rich and poor, young and old to switch at once, as well as transportation departments to switch the roads to this configuration (Read: never in your wildest dreams) will this happen.

while it's nice that they can build them, they won't see common use.